I vaguely remember this commercial from my childhood, I think it was for the Yellow Pages. It showed a car driving down the road, with disco music playing in the background, and talked about how you’re on your way to get a funky refrigerator for your funky new apartment, and it’s only available at some funky store that’s an hour away, and when you get there you find that they have it… in avocado-green only. Then the car drives back the other way, and the commercial asks all those time-conscious consumers at home, wringing their hands and fretting over this perceived injustice, “Don’t you wish you’d called first?”

This afternoon, I was that guy. I spent two hours driving around looking for a book. Two hours. It started off simple enough. I’m taking a literature class at the local community college and we had our first meeting today. The teacher listed off four books we will be reading and said that all four were in stock at the independent bookstore across the street from the campus. So, when class ended, I headed over.

As it turned out, only three of the four books were in stock. The fourth, a short story collection named Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg, had just sold out.* The woman behind the counter offered to order it for me, but since this is the first book we’ll be discussing and I need to finish it by next Thursday, I said no thanks, I’d look elsewhere.

Before I go any further with this (admittedly mundane) account, I feel like I should explain why didn’t I just buy the books from Amazon ahead of time. One, because this is the third class I’ve attempted to take at this particular school, and the first two were unceremoniously canceled the day before the class was supposed to start. With that track record, I honestly didn’t know until this morning whether I’d actually be sitting in a class this afternoon. And two, because I have a silly love affair with walking into a bookstore and plunking down a wad of cash for a pile of smooth, shiny, brand new books. Most of the time, I won’t let myself do it. I troll the aisles at Goodwill, I make earnest use of my library card, and yes, I take advantage of Amazon’s discounts and free shipping. I am one of those terrible people who’s putting independent booksellers out of business… ironically, the very same independent booksellers I pray to god will still be around in a year or two when (fingers crossed) my labor of love is on the shelves. I can’t afford to buy brand new full priced books all the time, but I can afford to do it once in a while, and when I’m taking a class it’s a lot easier to justify.

Continue reading